An Untamed State - Roxane Gay

Horribly captivating

Being kidnapped for a ransom can be a terrifying experience. You might think that's obvious, but you probably have no real idea of just how bad it can be. In An Untamed State, Mireille, a lawyer and daughter of a wealthy Haitian businessman, is kidnapped in Port au Prince by a group of armed men, wrenched away from her American husband and their young child, and held captive until a ransom of $1 million is paid. As you can imagine, the experience is deeply traumatic for Mireille, but no... you can't  really imagine just how traumatic. Roxane Gay can, but there's no way of making it easy for the reader.

An Untamed State is a book of two parts. The first part deals with the kidnapping, the second part with the aftermath. Without getting into boring structural analysis, the manner in which the author divides perspective is relevant to how the book achieves its impact so powerfully. At the beginning it feels like the author is going straight for the kill, taking the reader into the more thrilling kidnap drama action. Oh, if only... By the time you get past Mireille's first day in captivity, you're longing for release yourself in the backstory of her romance and relationship with Michael - but even that is not plain sailing. The divisions go deeper than this however, into male and female, husband and wife, rich and poor,  person/non-person, life in USA and life in Haiti - two diametrically opposed views of life with differing values.

Mainly however the division is within Mireille, who is unable to reconcile who she was before with the person she is now. It goes without saying then that Mireille's experience in captivity is deeply traumatic, and quite honestly, you're spared none of the details. It's not easy reading, but it's necessary to understand how deeply such an experience can strike to the core of a person's identity and to realise how fundamentally important that can be. It also shows, without becoming too much of a post-trauma case study, the strength of  an untamed human spirit to endure, and the depths of compassion that can also be found in others.

The reason that this book is quite so compelling despite the horror of its contents, is undoubtedly a testament to the ability of the author and the quality of her writing. Her descriptions of what happens might be almost unendurable, but they feel authentic. As such you can trust her not to hold back from all the other implications that the situation has for Mireille and her family. In a book of sharp contrasts, you would hope that there is some compensation for what you are put through, and - without betraying the work with any suggestion that there could be any happy ending - there is a corresponding pay-off in just how affecting An Untamed State is. As difficult as it is to read, it's hard to imagine any reader not being able to see this through and not being  deeply moved by the content.